6 listopada: Uroczystość nadania imienia Sabiny F. Logisz Sali Głównej Muzeum Polskiego
MPA|Wednesday, November 2, 2011
W niedzielę, dnia 6 listopada 2011 roku, o godzinie 14.00 Sali Głównej Muzeum Polskiego w Ameryce zostanie nadane imię Sabiny F. Logisz. Muzeum mieści się przy 984 N. Milwaukee Ave. w Chicago.
Pracę w Muzeum i Archiwum Zjednoczenia Polskiego Rzymsko-Katolickiego w Chicago (ówczesna nazwa Muzeum Polskiego w Ameryce) rozpoczęła 2 grudnia 1936 roku. Przez ponad 12 lat była najbliższym współpracownikiem Mieczysława Haimana, po jego śmierci sprawowała obowiązki kustosza. W 1958 roku odeszła z Muzeum, powołana przez prezesa Zjednoczenia Polskiego Rzymsko-Katolickiego, Stanisława Turkiewicza, na stanowisko sekretarza. Pełniła tę funkcję przez cztery kolejne kadencje. Po 23 latach powróciła do Muzeum – do biblioteki, w której działała do końca 2002 roku. Była inicjatorem wielu imprez i przedsięwzięć, z których dochód przeznaczono na rzecz Muzeum. W ciągu dziesiątek lat pomogła niezliczonej rzeszy badaczy. Posiadała encyklopedyczną wiedzę o Muzeum i historii Polonii.
W uznaniu i podziękowaniu za aktywność społeczną i zawodową została wyróżniona: w 1976 roku nagrodą „Kobieta Roku”, przyznaną jej przez Polish American Scholarship Fund (Polsko-Amerykański Fundusz Stypendialny); 3 maja 1990 roku została odznaczona Krzyżem Oficerskim Orderu Polonia Restituta; w 1998 roku – odznaką „Zasłużony dla kultury polskiej” otrzymaną od Ministra Kultury i Sztuki Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej. Jej biogram znajduje się w renomowanej publikacji The World Who’s Who of Women wydawanej przez Międzynarodowe Centrum Biografistyki w brytyjskim Cambridge. Dnia 18 kwietnia 2007 została uhonorowana dyplomem uznania burmistrza Chicago - Richarda M. Daley’ego. W roku 2007, roku jubileuszu siedemdziesięciolecia otwarcia Muzeum Polskiego w Ameryce, Pani Sabina F. Logisz otrzymała Złoty Medal „Zasłużony Kulturze - Gloria Artis” Ministra Kultury i Dziedzictwa Narodowego Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej. (MK)
Foto: Jerzy Pasternak
Dedication of the Sabina P. Logisz Great Hall
Sunday, November 6, 2011 at 2 o’clock in the afternoon Sabina P. Logisz Great Hall, 3rd Floor 984 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago, IL 60642
Sabina Phyllis Logisz, a lifetime Northwest Side Chicagoan and an icon in the Polish American Community, born on November 10, 1916, was the daughter of Polish immigrants Bronislawa and Roman Logisz. One of seven children, she graduated from St. Hedwig Grammar School and Holy Family Academy and received her Associate Bachelor of Arts degree from Wilbur Wright College. Ms. Logisz passed away of natural causes on November 9, 2010 one day short of her 94th birthday.
She mastered the intricacies of the Polish language despite never having been to Poland. She was also proficient in French, Latin, and Russian. She dreamed of pursuing a modeling career, but her professional travels veered in another direction. Sabina’s lifelong association with the Polish Roman Catholic Union of America (PRCUA) began during her early childhood school days and lasted until her retirement in 2002. In December of 1936, her enthusiastic interest in the newly founded Polish Museum of America (PMA), led to a 74-year “love affair” with the Museum. From 1936 until 1948, Sabina used her organizational skills to assist Mieczyslaw Haiman, the first curator of the PMA, in organizing its archival materials. After his death in 1949, she fulfilled the duties of curator and successfully secured more space for the Museum’s growing collections. In 1958, the president of the PRCUA, Stanislaus Turkiewicz, requested that Ms. Logisz become his secretary, a post she held for 23 years for several PRCUA presidents.
In 1979, during this tenure at the PRCUA, Sabina, along with PMA member, Walter Sojka, engineered the financial success of the Museum’s first and biggest fundraiser, “The Annual Summer Ball.” Additionally, from 1968 to 1989, Ms. Logisz authored an English language column, “Sabina’s See Saw,” for the PRCUA’s monthly bilingual publication, Narod Polski. Even though Sabina was offered the position of Executive Editor of the Narod Polski in 1981, she chose to become part of the Museum library staff. This gave her the opportunity to use her extensive English-language editorial skills in preparing the publication of Autographed Letters of Thaddeus Kosciusko in the American Revolution (1977) and the re-issuing of Haiman’s Polish Past in America (1991). During her 23-year tenure with the Museum library and her 66-year affiliation with the PRCUA, Sabina served as the PMA’s secretary, editor, a museologist, a cataloger of books, an English language instructor to numerous library employees, and the liaison between the library and Chicago’s Polonia community, as well as to all who entered its doors. For decades, Ms. Logisz assisted scholars in their research as she was the “heart” of the library and its “encyclopedia” of archival information. If a researcher needed a resource and if the Museum library had it, Sabina knew exactly where to locate it.
Ms. Logisz was an active member of many educational, social, and philanthropic organizations including the Polish American Historical Association and the Polish Arts Club of Chicago. She was a member of the Legion of Young Polish Women and of the Auxiliary of St. Mary of Nazareth Hospital. Ms. Logisz has received numerous awards for her contributions to Polonia. In 1976, she received the “Woman of the Year” award from the Polish American Scholarship Fund; and, in 1990, she was awarded the Officer’s Cross of Polonia Restituta for publishing material on Polish culture. In 1998, the Minister of Culture and Arts of the Republic of Poland presented Ms. Logisz with the award for Meritious Service to Polish Culture, and in September 2007, Ms. Logisz received, from the Republic of Poland, the highest cultural award given outside of Poland, the Golden Gloria Artis. Sabina Logisz is listed in The World Who’s Who of Women, was honored by Mayor Richard M. Daley for her contributions to Chicago Polonia, by Cook County Treasurer, Maria Pappas, and was featured on Harry Porterfield’s and WLS-TV Channel 7’s “Someone You Should Know.”
(Dr. Geraldine Balut Coleman, with additional material provided by Leonard Kurdek and Maria Ciesla)
Sabina Felicja Logisz (1916-2010), Foto: Jerzy Pasternak
